Paddy Bishopp - The Joys Of The Robusta Bean

Posted by Paddy on 11/05/2011

The wonders of modern technology, here I am in my hotel room in Bucharest taking a couple of hours break from my Romanian Colleagues we are helping to set up an Entrepreneurial Course with (I consult for an International Business School in Cambridge a couple of days a month) and I can go on-line, into our website and write a blog.

 So, some interesting facts on Romania

1. It is a very formal place but this makes the people very gracious!!

2. It is a very hierarchical society where age and position are respected

3. Romanians tend to be extravagant hosts and you may be asked to drink, eat and dance in excess (this is so true as I found out at 3 am this morning).

4. They have some excellent coffee

The coffee in fact has been the biggest surprise and I am still salivating over the amazing espresso I enjoyed in a traditional Romanian restaurant last night. Its flavour, smoothness but most importantly its texture were all perfect, the crema on it was one of the best I have ever seen. It made me realise how many bad coffee's are served in The UK compared to abroad, I am not saying that we do not have good coffee roasters, there is obviously us and I can name 2 or 3 other amazing ones but there are so many terrible blends produced and really no excuse for it.

 I have been pondering what made this coffee so good and I think I know the answer, we are obsessed with Arabica bean in the UK!! OK, they are the best quality, grown at high altitude and a premium bean compared to their poor cousin, the Robusta bean, which is grown at lower altitude in countries like Vietnam and Uganda. They do have more flavour and you cannot beat a single estate Arabica bean from Ethiopia (in my opinion). However, we should learn from our Romanian friends who add a small percentage of Robusta to their blends, and this is there secret. It does not affect the flavours, it does not (if roasted correctly) make it bitter, what it does do is give the coffee, in its espresso form, the most amazing body with a crema to die for!

We have always been very quiet about the fact in one of our espresso blends we do use a small percentage of Robusta, we mention it on our website but we do not talk about it as much as we do about the Arabia beans we use. From today though this will change, let's be proud of The Robusta bean and how it can help make such a perfect espresso.

 In the mean time I have 24 hours left in Romania and I intend to drink many more espresso's!!